Gay In East Germany is a documentary which addresses the question of how gay men lived and could live their lives under ‘real socialism’, where GDR ideology considered homosexuality to be a remnant of bourgeois decadent morality and harmful to a socialist society.

Politics, identity, the search for substitute families, the fear of violence, even among lesbians, the social exclusion of minorities and self-imposed silence are some of the topics addressed in Children of Srikandi.

Detlef takes us back into the turbulent days of the gay rights movement and illuminates an all but forgotten chapter in West-German history, a time of socio-political change during which the battle for fundamental rights for gays and lesbians was fought and won.

This film interweaves the stories of four women and images from their everyday lives into a powerful, intimate and politically explosive portrait in which the ‘little’ things that inform the lives of these four women – their thoughts, their experience of marriage and their wedding night, divorce, family, violence, abuse, work and migration – come together to form an impressive social portrait.

Humour, irony and razor sharp observation are his liberating weapons against bigoted prejudice in a documentary which pays tribute to Ralf König, Gemany’s best-known comic illustrator and an artist at the height of is creativity.

Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present and The Virgin, The Copts And Me

For ten years the Beijing Queer Film Festival has battled official oppression and homophobia to fight for more visibility for gays and lesbian issues in China. This film documents this struggle and the‘guerrilla’ tactics used by the festival’s organisers.

Filmed over a period of one year, this documentary reveals the tension present in Yemen three months prior to the first protests – a result of thirty-three years of Ali Abdullah Saleh’s dictatorship. Director Sean McAllister takes a seemingly unobtrusive protagonist and turns him into a genuine hero who experiences his country’s revolution at first hand and, in doing so, makes events tangible for the viewer.

Those who want to know more about what really happened during the violent G8 anti-globalisation protests in Genoa in July 2001, and who want to find out what led to the brutal deployment of riot police and the effects of this operation will not be disappointed by this film.

Film which provides an exploration of Ulrike Ottinger’s substantial oeuvre, and provides a keen insight into the artist’s life and work. In addition, this year’s Berlinale will honour Ulrike Ottinger with the Special Teddy – Queer Film Award.

The Virgin, The Copts And Me is a humorous fictional documentary and family-drama-cum-culture-clash set in Egypt about religion in the diaspora, the art of cinema and the boundless creativity of the filmmakers. Making good use of his mother as the film’s wonderful main protagonist, this directorial debut charmingly and wittily exposes the manipulative aspects of documentary filmmaking.